Fascinating -- I did not know any of this www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/o...

Opinion | The ‘Civil War’ Is a Lie. Let’s Call It the ‘Slaveholders’ Rebellion’ Again. (Gift Article)

To face our own history, we must be honest about it.

nytimes.com

I read through this, and it's remarkably autocratic, almost Soviet-style vision for science in the United States.

OSTP Director Releases Landmark Report and Recommendations for Renewing American Scientific Discovery

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Michael Kratsios

whitehouse.gov

Mentions: earth, geolog*, socio*, tox, renewable, solar: 0 environment: 6 times, only as research environment ecosystem: 9 times, only as innovation ecosystem life: 3 times, all to say life sciences research should be reduced climate: Seriously? No. public health only in the intro 😬

Bob Kopp@bobkopp.net · 2w ago

With those priorities, good thing we don’t live on a planet 🙄🌍

Another outstanding paper from @gruberte.bsky.social, well worth the read. She says clearly what most of us know, but have failed to say explicitly. She doesn't really "yell" at ERL, but coolly explains how we all have ignored the need to approach fossil phase-out as a field in its own right.

Emily Grubert@gruberte.bsky.social · 2w ago

In which I yell at my favorite journal and its thoughtful, talented collection of researchers that we really need to take fossil phase-out seriously as a line of inquiry, and that we would not stand for the level of talking around it as a solution in other settings with very obvious problems:

Hi. Can you help? We have a problem at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that desperately needs your expertise.

Metin Seven (Moon Child's dad 🌝)@seven.eurosky.social · 2w ago

Remember the Endangerment Finding that Trump/Zeldin repealed because "the science was wrong"? More severe wildfire (and wildfire smoke) was just one of the reasons why it was originally established 17 years ago.

Dave Levitan@davelevitan.bsky.social · 3w ago

Oof that climate change-induced wildfire smoke outside is brutal, I'll just stay inside and have a sala--

Remember the Endangerment Finding that Trump/Zeldin repealed because "the science was wrong"? Extreme flooding was just one of the reasons why it was originally established 17 years ago.

Bob Henson@bhensonweather.bsky.social · 3w ago

The Guadalupe River at Centerpoint TX, just downstream from Kerrville, crested this AM at 37.94”— just 2 feet below the level reached in last summer’s catastrophic flood. 1. 39.61 ft on 07-04-2025 (P) 2. 24.27 ft on 10-16-2018 3. 14.83 ft on 05-29-2016 water.noaa.gov/gauges/gctt2

Remember the Endangerment Finding that Trump/Zeldin repealed because "the science was wrong"? Higher ozone levels was just one of the reasons why it was originally established 17 years ago.

Scott Robeson@indianaclimate.bsky.social · 3w ago

In addition to their more direct impacts on PM2.5 (small particulate matter), higher emissions (of NOx and VOCs) from wildfires also have made ozone pollution concentrations worse.

CA leads the nation in scientific advancements & cutting-edge research. White House Office of Management and Budget new proposed rule puts all this in jeopardy & makes way for politically motivated decisions that serve the President over science.   They must rescind this rule immediately.

Ol' JD needs to read @vermontgmg.bsky.social's excellent new history (2022) of the criminal abuses that get lumped together as Watergate. Everyone else should read it, too. Nixon may well be a lodestar, but that is simply a justification for the current administration's criminality.

The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 4w ago

JD Vance’s recent comments on Watergate are part of a growing trend of right-wingers who believe that Nixon is “a lodestar for 21st-century Right-wing counterculture.” @mikekoncewicz.bsky.social on the rehabilitation of Nixon:

It's going to be interesting to see how they butcher not only the next NCA, but also the required review process. They couldn't get their DOE "climate science" report through any meaningful review. They'll have the same problems here, even if they learn from their experience (questionable).

Scott Waldman@scottpwaldman.bsky.social · 4w ago

The White House has reconstituted the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which tracks climate change and produces the National Climate Assessment. The Trump version will focus on "positive" climate effects and be used to protect fossil fuel companies from lawsuits. www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

I guess it's just asking too much for these yahoos to introduce an End Abuse of Air Quality Act, given the poor air quality in too many places in the country bsky.app/profile/ianl...

James Goodwin@jamesgoodwin.bsky.social · last mo.

"[T]he End EPA Abuse Act..., a bill to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from promulgating Clean Air Act regulations that go beyond the authority granted to the agency by Congress." I think the Clean Air Act already did that? cei.org/news_release...

Isti Mirant Stella! Mexican Bayeux, at a stretch... open.substack.com/pub/jpstonar...

The Mexican Performance

On the Bayeux Tapestry and a curious link with John Constable

open.substack.com

I respect all the folks involved in the propublica story on the “wedges” paper but they are overegging the pudding here. 1) BP funding and contribution was acknowledged in the paper. 2) the key takeaway was the ‘wedges’ concept, not the specifics of any particular wedge.

This is amazing. If it's not quite "too cheap to meter," it's pretty close. It only took 72 years after Lewis Strauss' famous comment about nuclear energy and a shift to solar, but still.

Jenny Chase@solarchase.bsky.social · last mo.

Australia (well, three states of it) mandates three free hours of electricity every day from tomorrow, up to 24kWh. This is a pretty good explainer. lenergy.com.au/free-daytime...

There's a difference between loving coffee and being addicted to caffeine. If only someone could make coffee that didn't have caffeine in it....

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · last mo.

Column: The trade-off between energy and sleep is something many coffee drinkers know intimately. Miscalculate, and you end up “tired and wired.” You don’t need to quit. But you may need to move up your last cup to much earlier in the day than you think.

Probably an unpopular take, but the wedges paper and carbon capture issues are not a simple sell-out to the fossil fuel industry as depicted by ProPublica’s report. It ignores the very real historical context in which the paper was written. 🧵1/14

City Atlas@cityatlas.bsky.social · last mo.

OMG, must-read. The key to the whole puzzle is what happened to the best university system in the world (and in history).

The viral fake quote attributed to Jeff Bezos got me thinking about how, in contrast to the fossil industry's disinfo campaigns, big tech is just destroying our shared reality from the inside out Inside media outlets, inside academia and yes, inside climate organisations and institutions as well ->

How to breathe air when we’re drowning in big tech’s slop

A viral fabricated Bezos quote reveals how big tech is engineering widespread reality collapse. We need to stop them.

ketanjoshi.co

The next heat wave could be hard on your heart, especially if you're a man over 40. Heat can worsen air pollution, increasing the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and irregular heart rhythms. Check the AQI, protect your heart, and demand stronger protections for cleaner air.

“Viewpoint diversity” is a trap For @table.media, I wrote about the Yale report on “Trust in Higher Education” – and why we will not be able to defend academic freedom by accepting the terms set by a rightwing campaign intended to impose reactionary rule. Some thoughts, since it is in German:

Die Freiheit der Wissenschaft lässt sich nicht in den Begriffen der radikalen Rechten verteidigen

US-Hochschulen üben Selbstkritik wegen mangelnder „viewpoint diversity“. Weshalb hinter diesem Begriff eine jahrzehntelange Kampagne gegen die Idee einer freien Universität und Gesellschaft steht, erk...

table.media

😂😂 Breaks the Internet 😂😂

Author Gareth Davies finds that opposition to SRM research is the most plausible explanation for "concerns about the kind of society that SRM geoengineering may create or allow to continue." To me, this is the clearest explanation of the debate around SRM.

Dan Visioni@danvisioni.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I fully agree with this piece www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...: "If one believes [...] that capitalism is inherently destructive and that instrumentalizing nature is inherently harmful, then it makes sense to resist geoengineering, in particular SRM, strongly, even if...

This free fabulous interactive tool is both fascinating and essential. You can click on any location in the world and see its average weather and how it's changed over time. The data shown is from where I grew up & the heating is obvious. Do share! era-explorer.climate.copernicus.eu?lat=50.86&ln...

This is a great example of benefits from redefining a process. When we talk about "efficiency" we implicitly assume what the process is. If you assume the process is "heating water and pushing it through coffee at high pressure" the opportunities for efficiency improvements are limited.

Jennifer Ouellette@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Scientists Invent a Way to Brew Espresso With Ultrasonic Waves—No Hot Water Required www.wired.com/story/scient...

Had we evaluated the Apollo programme by each individual project's cost-benefit ratio, we would have concluded it was a failure. The value emerged at the portfolio level–across sectors, over time, through spillovers no one predicted.

"A pending report on climate attribution may be setting the stage for conflict." NO! It's not the report that's setting the stage for conflict. It's those opposed to the facts in the report who are creating the conflict. If they don't like the report, then they can show how it's wrong. 1/2

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2mo ago

The whole Neville Chamberlain thing is working out about as well as expected for the National Academies.

It's early, but it's going to be hard to beat this for skeet of the day.

Philip Bump@pbump.com · 2mo ago

Seems like a good time to be sitting under a giant metal arch.

Red alert: The OMB regulations could disable science permanently open.substack.com/pub/holdenth...

Red alert: The OMB regulations could disable science permanently

All hands report to stations

open.substack.com

@gruberte.bsky.social and @jmijin.bsky.social don't just show us how to think outside the box, they're creating entirely new boxes for us to consider. Another excellent piece demonstrating how to manage fossil fuel decline. Well worth the time to read in detail.

Emily Grubert@gruberte.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New from me and @jmijin.bsky.social: the third in our series arguing for and explaining how to do a governance demonstration of public acquisition of US fossil fuel assets for managed decline. We focus on Powder River Basin (PRB) coal assets and find market value is ~$0

A masterpiece of science communication by Craig McLean, former Chief Scientist of NOAA, in response to the outrageous and dangerous new proposal that would give Trump officials more control over scientific research grants (the OMB debacle) 🧪 youtu.be/WKkRVhwiJAM?...

New proposal would give Trump officials more control over scientific research grants

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour

youtu.be